Graviky Labs creates AIR-INK, the first ever eco-friendly ink from air pollution :Graviky Labs, a Bangalore based startup and MIT spin off, offers a solution called Air-Ink, the first ever consumer friendly usable ink made completely out of air pollution. Amongst other accolades it has recently garnered them a D&AD Award for Product Design 2017.

Simply put, Graviky Labs capture soot/air pollution and recycle it into consumer safe inks. Air-Ink is the first ink to be made completely out of air pollution.

Kaalink can retrofit onto cars, trucks and diesel generators without performance effect on the engines. Kaalink stops air pollution/particulate matter at its source. "30ml ink we make arrests air pollution equal to ~45 minutes of car emissions"

First, they capture the raw materials or air pollution via their proprietary technology called KAALNK™, titled so as Kaali+Ink = Kaalink; “Black being the color of soot we capture and ink being the product we make out of it”. It is a cylindrical vessel like container that retrofits onto exhausts/ chimneys and captures the carbon emissions thus preventing it from entering our atmosphere without impacting the performance of the engine/vehicle. These captured pollutants contain a number of toxic impurities such as micro dust particles, oils, VOCs, heavy metals etc.

Next, this collection is purified by putting it through proprietary chemical processes beginning with “gravity-based separation” for high-mass particles, to comminution (reducing a material to minute particles or fragments) and catalysed activation to remove harmful elements.

Graviky Labs creates AIR-INK, the first ever eco-friendly ink from air pollution :Graviky Labs, a Bangalore based startup and MIT spin off, offers a solution called Air-Ink, the first ever consumer friendly usable ink made completely out of air pollution. Amongst other accolades it has recently garnered them a D&AD Award for Product Design 2017.

Simply put, Graviky Labs capture soot/air pollution and recycle it into consumer safe inks. Air-Ink is the first ink to be made completely out of air pollution.

Kaalink can retrofit onto cars, trucks and diesel generators without performance effect on the engines. Kaalink stops air pollution/particulate matter at its source. "30ml ink we make arrests air pollution equal to ~45 minutes of car emissions"

First, they capture the raw materials or air pollution via their proprietary technology called KAALNK™, titled so as Kaali+Ink = Kaalink; “Black being the color of soot we capture and ink being the product we make out of it”. It is a cylindrical vessel like container that retrofits onto exhausts/ chimneys and captures the carbon emissions thus preventing it from entering our atmosphere without impacting the performance of the engine/vehicle. These captured pollutants contain a number of toxic impurities such as micro dust particles, oils, VOCs, heavy metals etc.

Next, this collection is purified by putting it through proprietary chemical processes beginning with “gravity-based separation” for high-mass particles, to comminution (reducing a material to minute particles or fragments) and catalysed activation to remove harmful elements.

Did you know that soot, or particulate air pollution containing carbon is 1/30th the diameter of a single human hair that can travel quite deep into our systems? Now imagine how many of these particles you are filling your lungs with each time you breathe!

Graviky Labs creates AIR-INK, the first ever eco-friendly ink from air pollution :Graviky Labs, a Bangalore based startup and MIT spin off, offers a solution called Air-Ink, the first ever consumer friendly usable ink made completely out of air pollution. Amongst other accolades it has recently garnered them a D&AD Award for Product Design 2017.

Where does soot come from? Soot is nothing but unburnt carbon particles from anything that combusts fossil fuels such as trucks, cars, scooters, chulhas, motors, and most engines that are run on the likes of diesel, petrol, kerosene, etc. Add this to the fact that scientists predict that the death toll from air pollution will reach 6.6 million by 2050, if action is not taken to reduce emissions our future begins to look pretty grim.

This is where Graviky Labs, a Bangalore based startup and MIT spin off, offers a solution called Air-Ink, the first ever consumer friendly usable ink made completely out of air pollution. Amongst other accolades it has recently garnered them a D&AD Award for Product Design 2017.

Who is Graviky?

Inspired by R Buckminster Fuller’s quote, “Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value”, Graviky Labs looked to reinterpret environment conservation through fusion of science and art and develop technologies that have net-positive impact on our environment via Air-Ink. You can read more about the team and their advisors here. At Graviky they “fuse disciplines, technologies, design thinking to build high impact deployable systems, products and visions.”

How do we get the ink?

Simply put, Graviky Labs capture soot/air pollution and recycle it into consumer safe inks. Air-Ink is the first ink to be made completely out of air pollution.

Simply put, Graviky Labs capture soot/air pollution and recycle it into consumer safe inks. Air-Ink is the first ink to be made completely out of air pollution.

First, they capture the raw materials or air pollution via their proprietary technology called KAALNK™, titled so as Kaali+Ink = Kaalink; “Black being the color of soot we capture and ink being the product we make out of it”. It is a cylindrical vessel like container that retrofits onto exhausts/ chimneys and captures the carbon emissions thus preventing it from entering our atmosphere without impacting the performance of the engine/vehicle. These captured pollutants contain a number of toxic impurities such as micro dust particles, oils, VOCs, heavy metals etc.

Kaalink can retrofit onto cars, trucks and diesel generators without performance effect on the engines. Kaalink stops air pollution/particulate matter at its source. "30ml ink we make arrests air pollution equal to ~45 minutes of car emissions"

First, they capture the raw materials or air pollution via their proprietary technology called KAALNK™, titled so as Kaali+Ink = Kaalink; “Black being the color of soot we capture and ink being the product we make out of it”. It is a cylindrical vessel like container that retrofits onto exhausts/ chimneys and captures the carbon emissions thus preventing it from entering our atmosphere without impacting the performance of the engine/vehicle. These captured pollutants contain a number of toxic impurities such as micro dust particles, oils, VOCs, heavy metals etc.

A key aspect in the process of creating Air-Ink is that not only does it prevent soot from entering the air, but also, unlike regular ink, it does not burn extra fossil fuel in its making.

Next, this collection is purified by putting it through proprietary chemical processes beginning with “gravity-based separation” for high-mass particles, to comminution (reducing a material to minute particles or fragments) and catalysed activation to remove harmful elements.

Next, this collection is purified by putting it through proprietary chemical processes beginning with “gravity-based separation” for high-mass particles, to comminution (reducing a material to minute particles or fragments) and catalysed activation to remove harmful elements.

Finally, the resultant soot is ground to a consistent particle size creating a purified carbon-based pigment. This pigment is taken through yet another process to make different types of inks and paints, thus creating Air-Ink.

A key aspect in the process of creating Air-Ink is that not only does it prevent soot from entering the air, but also, unlike regular ink, it does not burn extra fossil fuel in its making. Additionally, Graviky Labs use the services of a leading waste management company to sort and recycle any generated waste during the process.

Air-Ink can be used in a number of ways from screen printing on tees, murals, sketching and even incorporated for printing on products. They have currently come up with the following Air-Ink Kit which include :

What next?

While Asia and India specifically continue to grow exponentially with rapid industrialisation facilitating urbanisation and deforestation, a dangerous byproduct is escalating levels of air pollution.

“Our vision is to arrest the vehicular soot in a way that it doesn’t reach our lungs. The process of creating Air-Ink carefully detoxifies heavy metals and particulate carcinogens from the soot or carbon. The Pollutants that could have been in the lungs of millions of people are now beautifully resting as art.”

Graviky Labs has applied for patents, receiving which they will publish the detailed process involved in both Kaalink & Air-Ink. When asked what’s to come in the future, they share, “Our vision is to arrest the vehicular soot in a way that it doesn’t reach our lungs. The process of creating Air-Ink carefully detoxifies heavy metals and particulate carcinogens from the soot or carbon. The Pollutants that could have been in the lungs of millions of people are now beautifully resting as art.”

While this may seem almost too romantic a vision, the truth lies in the fact that our society does not have to relive the disasters of European Industrialisation, as we have both history to warn us and technology to help us not repeat it. The scope of Air-Ink is definitely a hopeful one with an added bonus of utility and art.

Air-Ink can be used in a number of ways from screen printing on tees, murals, sketching and even incorporated for printing on products.